"The Rufford affair had begun before that," said Hoffmann.
"The Rufford affair as you call it," said Glossop, "was no affair at all."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Currie.
"I mean that Rufford was never engaged to her,—not for an instant," said the lad, urgent in spreading the lesson which he had received from his cousin. "It was all a dead take-in."
"Who was taken in?" asked Mounser Green.
"Well;—nobody was taken in as it happened. But I suppose there can't be a doubt that she tried her best to catch him, and that the Duke and Duchess and Mistletoe, and old Trefoil, all backed her up. It was a regular plant. The only thing is, it didn't come off."
"Look here, young shaver;"—this was Mounser Green again;—"when you speak of a young lady do you be a little more discreet."
"But didn't she do it, Green?"
"That's more than you or I can tell. If you want to know what I think, I believe he paid her a great deal of attention and then behaved very badly to her."
"He didn't behave badly at all," said young Glossop.